Life is for Living
by wolfofthemoon101
Summary: It has been a few years since Ed and Al got thier bodies back and everything is going well. However the Truth has added anothother sick twist to the story. How will they cope?
1. Accident

Summary: It has been a few years since Ed and Al got their bodies back, yet the Truth has added another sick twist to the story. What will they do now?

Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the plot. I am merely borrowing the characters for this fanfic.

Rest in peace. Interesting thing to put on a grave, I mean it's not as if the dead guy really cares after his death. He wont really notice if his grave is dug up. But it really matters beforehand, when the person is alive, especially when they have a warning that they're gonna die. For example if they have a fatal illness or an unbelievably good fortune reading. Some people don't get a warning though. People like _Him._

The new Fuhrer Mustang (the guy finally achieved his goal) was doing a routine inspection of central command, meaning a parade and many important officers and various wives, girlfriends ect of the military personnel watching the new recruits be trained in various military areas, such as weapons handling. It just so happened that Brother had to be there to help out, even though he is a Colonel. I was taking this Parade, as I am a Warrant Officer and ASMs always take parades. It was my first time doing it (since I joined the military two years ago, after I got my strength back). We had only had two practices and they had gone well, meaning that there was a high chance of messing up when doing it for real. Luckily, things still went smoothly and the band was fantastic. After the parade people began to leave to have drinks and look around, but Brother and Mustang and others in Mustang's old office like Breda and Fuery had stayed to watch me, moral support I guess.

Then there was the weapons handling of some Privates to watch. Most of the rifles were fine, however one of the Privates rifles was malfunctioning. I watched him do the routine of removing a lodged object twice, but the third time he put his hand up. Sergeant Scott walked over to help, but didn't have a clue. Brother noticed this and came to help him. People were muttering and wondering what was going on. It turns out that a round (bullet) was stubbornly stuck in the barrel of the rifle due to bad cleaning. Ed turned the rifle to remove the round. Then…

Bang!


	2. Lifeless

Summary: It has been a few years since Ed and Al got their bodies back, yet the Truth has added another sick twist to the story. What will they do now?

Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the plot. I am merely borrowing the characters for this fanfic. BTW I know I got Ed's rank wrong but I decided to do it with American ranks and normal promos. Sorry if it got confusing.

Slightly inspired by various Script songs. A partial songfic to Exit Wounds. I OWN NOTHING!

Bang!

Everything had slowed to a sluggish silence. If Brother or I screamed, I didn't notice. All I could see was Ed. He stumbled back a step or two, and looked at the rifle in his hands with an amused look on his face.

Then Ed looked down.

A dark blue patch had spread across his ironed uniform and a glistening red puddle had formed on his polished boots and the ground. His knees buckled and Edward Elric, Hero of the People, was brought to his knees coughing up blood.

I ran to him closely followed by Mustang and Hawkeye. When we reached him, you couldn't see where the bullet had entered. There was too much blood. The bullet was nowhere to be seen either.

"Brother, Brother! Please don't die, hang on, okay? The doctors are going to help you, you'll get better and then we can go home to Risembool to see Granny and Winry, right?" I put Ed into the recovery position and fought back tears.

"Ed, listen, an ambulance so on the way so hang on!" That was Hawkeye.

"Fullmetal! Don't you die on me, I can't be asked to do the paperwork!" Despite his harsh words, Mustang actually looked distressed at the thought of his ex-subordinate dying.

Ed said nothing. He simply grasped my hand and stared at me with unseeing eyes. In the near distance was the ambulance siren, closer, closer. The paramedics were then pushing me back despite my struggles. They lifted a groaning Ed onto a stretcher and into the back before letting me, Hawkeye and Mustang in. Hands rushed to open his uniform to find where the bullet wound was and whether it had ricochet or not. He never let go of my hand, even near unconsciousness.

Before long the ambulance stopped and Ed was rushed through to theatre. I fell through the doors of the emergency room and ran with them, demanding to be in surgery with him. In the rare moments that I looked from Ed's pained face, I saw panic and chaos. Yet inside I felt hollow, still in shock. But then they reached the theatre and his hand was wrenched from mine.

Then we waited, silently, but the noise of no words put unseen pressure on my ears. I wanted to do something, but I was helpless. Hawkeye stared ahead, the tears freely falling. Mustang became more vocal, using anger to release and distract him from the anxiety. He demanded more help, the name of the last person to handle the malfunctioned rifle, about how unfair it all was, Ed had made it through so much worse than a bullet wound to the chest before. Mustang's rant thawed the ice and triggered my own emotional turmoil.

At some point a nurse burst out of the theatre, calling out for any available doctors to help the kid Colonel Elric's critical condition. The door let us see a glimpse of dashing bodies, a slowing heartbeat. I cried out desperately that I could help, I had studied bio alchemy from our travels to get our bodies back. I could save him dammit! But they wouldn't let me in, nobody was listening to any of us…Eventually a nurse returned and asked me to follow her to her office, and I knew it couldn't be good.

At the end of the hallway she entered a half opened door which I assumed lead to her office. I followed. She turned without sitting down and confirmed what I hadn't expected; "Mr Elric, your older brother, Edward, well for unknown reasons your brother has fallen into a self-induced coma. We have no idea how this could have happened but -"

My hands are cold, my body's numb. I'm still in shock. _What have you done?_ My head is pounding, my vision's blurred. Her mouth is moving I don't hear a word. _Why? Why did you do this, Brother? You have endured far worse than this! _The door closed.

Please rate and review, cause they really help and they make my day J


	3. Weightless

Summary: It has been a few years since Ed and Al got their bodies back, yet the Truth has added another sick twist to the story. What will they do now?

Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the plot. I am merely borrowing the characters for this fanfic. BTW I know I got Ed's rank wrong but I decided to do it with American ranks and normal promos. Sorry if it got confusing.

Thank you so much to Fireflower19 for giving me inspiration to carry on after so long. You are a lifesaver! I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. If there are any mistakes please let me know and I will change them ASAP

Red. All I can see is red. It's flowing around me, a bit like when I was swallowed by Envy, and enveloping me like my red coat, I felt so relaxed. I faintly wondered why I wasn't drowning, as I was breathing underwater, but I waved the thought off and closed my eyes, allowing myself to drift with the current. When I open my eyes, I see a small maroon shape emerge towards me. It's Al, and he seemed upset. More than upset, he was grief-stricken. His mouth was moving, yet I couldn't hear a word. The tears began to stream down his face, and when I ran to him to see what was wrong, he ignored me, as if I weren't there. Then he began to turn away, shaking his head. I saw his mouth form the words 'Ed' and 'coma'.

_A coma? Is that what I'm in?_ I thought that they were simply prolonged periods of unconsciousness, which can go on for a days, weeks, months, years. _Is this really a coma?_ **Yes it is human. **I spun around in surprise, ready to fight if need be. The Truth was sat in front of the gate again, like he always had been whenever I ended up there. I noticed that the water had disappeared when the Truth had spoken.

"Why am I like this? What did you do you bastard?" It was obvious that he had something to do with this. The smirk on his face and the fact that I was even here gave him away.

**I simply set things up so that you would get shot, and so this would look like an accident. Something of your own doing. **

"But why? I haven't trans mutated anything because I gave up alchemy, remember? Why do you always screw with me?" I began to regret giving up alchemy, it would've helped me kick this guy's ass.

**Because it's fun. You amuse me Edward Elric, and I enjoy watching your reactions to emotional pain. Therefore I decided to do this. **He grinned that annoying evil grin that I knew well.

"You sick bastard! Get me out of here right now!" It took all of my willpower not to beat the crap outta him then and there.

**Ah ah ah…We have to wait until the opportune moment. You should thank me though. That bullet could have killed you, and imagine the pain that would have caused your baby brother and.. Winry, is it? **Damn him, he knew all my weak points!

"Leave them out of this or I swear I'll kick your ass!"

**We'll see Human, we'll see. However for now you can remain in a coma and make your loved ones suffer. Because after all, seeing them suffer makes you suffer too, isn't that right? **

And with that he vanished, leaving me pissed off and worried for my family. The Truth was right, although I didn't want to admit it. "For fuck's sake!" I yelled, punching the almost painfully pure white surface beneath me. I had to find a way out of this coma, and without alchemy it seemed near impossible. _Hospitals do treatments for coma patients, right? _All I could think about was coming up with a plan and also whether Al and Winry were alright.


	4. Emotionless

Author's note: I'm back with another chapter at last! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long but what with exams, studying and intense writer's block happening all at once, I haven't been able to do any writing whatsoever. It really sucked! But now that it's the summer holidays I will start to try and chip away at the writer's block and hopefully update a lot more regularly. I am working on making my chapters longer and more detailed. Anyway, enjoy and please review to aid me and make my day :)

In, out, in, out.

Wake up, get dressed, eat, go to the hospital, worry, pace around, remember to breathe.

It was the same routine every day for the past 2 weeks since Ed's…condition occurred. There was nothing to distract me from it; I couldn't go to work - Mustang himself gave me leave for the time being, he and Hawkeye even came with me to the hospital sometimes. Television and radio were irrelevant; books became dull and couldn't grab my attention for longer than 10 minutes. All I could do was watch over him and think.

I went over the circumstances over and over again, but no matter how I looked at it, it made no sense – according to the doctor it was nearly impossible to perform a self-induced coma. Plus, this was a simple bullet wound; Ed had survived having a pole through his stomach and human transmutation before. Granted, alchemy had been involved, but that's an amazing feat nonetheless.

So that begs the question of 'why now?' Life was going well for us, there was no particular reason for Ed to do it. _There's something very wrong with the entire situation_ I thought to myself as I looked over at Ed's face.

It was eerily calm and neutral, which didn't seem to fit his normally animated and expressive features. His eyebrows were not furrowed in anger or concentration. His eyes weren't open to show the determined and often rebellious fire within them, which had been somewhat dulled as the weight of responsibility took hold of him. His mouth wasn't smiling, wasn't smirking, wasn't gritting his teeth. It wasn't right.

I looked at my watch – 10:00. Winry and granny would arrive in an hour or so to let me get some sleep. When they called the hospital I had tried to tell them that it was no problem, that I didn't mind staying and that I'm not sleeping well anyway, but Granny said with her usual blunt wiseness; "Lack of sleep makes you cranky and irritable, just like your brother. Go home and get out of that depressing place."

When Winry had received the news of Ed's coma, she jumped on the first train to Central. When she got to Ed's room, she looked shocked. She couldn't believe it, she said, that it was a mistake, a stupid mistake and that she'll kick his ass for making us all worry when he woke up. She yelled at Ed for a long time, telling him how she'll beat him up, how dare he do this to us and why the hell was he even doing this anyway? There was a pause as we both waited for a sign, anything similar to his usual indignation or retorts or comebacks. No such response occurred.

But after a while of looking at his motionless body and listening to the regular beat of his heart monitor, she began to realise that this wasn't some nightmare, that it was real and we had no idea how long he would stay unconscious for. Winry bowed her head and quietened down, till one tear slid down her face. I hugged her tight as she began to sob, to try and reassure her and look after her the way only brother could. Then I felt a warm patch forming on my shoulder and I felt her arms hug me back. Seeing my childhood friend in such pain stirred up my own worried, angry and confused emotions till I realised that I had begun to cry with her. And there we sat holding onto each other tight and letting go of our worry and frustration, till there were no more tears to cry.


	5. Senseless

It was pitch black. There was little difference between having my eyes closed and having them open. It was as if I were at the bottom of some great abyss surrounding me like a cage. However, I wasn't disorientated as my surroundings had changed so often since this coma had started that I was kind of used to it. It wasn't the scenery that scared me, it was what horrors emerged out of it that terrified me. A girl's scream exploded through the dark like a gunshot. I leapt to my feet and charged towards it. I pumped my arms and legs harder, hurling myself further into the unknown. I didn't have to run far as a small yellow shape came into view. I slowed my pace to a walk and approached the thing with caution, prepared for anything.

The animal like shape was hunched over and made low, agonised whimpering sounds; the kind that tug at your heartstrings and flood your body with pity. I reached out to it, and touched its corn yellow fur. It was soft and long, radiating warmth and pain. As I stroked it in an effort to comfort the creature, it turned mechanically turned its head towards me, and I swore and fell backwards in shock at the sight before me.

Familiar blue eyes stared dully, missing their usual mischievous glint. 'Ed…ward…Help…Me' A low voice croaked. That mouth, usually used for firing retorts at the speed of light, was struggling to form the simplest of sentences. I scrambled backwards, desperate to get away from this nightmare. But the all too familiar creature followed me, repeating that sentences over and over. _It can't be, this is exactly like what happened with Nina!_ _This can't have happened to Winry! _

The Winry chimera just kept coming and coming till it was nose to nose with me . Our eyes locked for a moment before there was a flash of light and the chimera exploded before my eyes. Blood splattered all over me. My eyes were wide with shock and my mouth open in a silent scream the metallic taste of blood in my mouth and the smell of it all around. I began to shake and my blood had run cold.

I didn't get much time to process what happened, as the ground began to shake and tremor increasingly hard. I followed my instincts and pushed through the shock and attempted to run, stumbling and tripping over the dark human heads emerging from the floor, turning it into a sticky tar like sea of human faces. They all cried out with different voices, jockeying for attention sliding over and absorbing each other. I fought hard against them hard but to no avail, as the harder I fought, the deeper I got in tar like human heads. Eventually they had crawled up my legs so much I couldn't stay up, and they pulled my down and started on the rest of me. As I was swallowed up by the heads, I simply shut my eyes and waited for the next nightmare to begin.


End file.
